DAU / MAU

DAU (Daily Active Users) and MAU (Monthly Active Users) are basic metrics for product engagement. They are calculated simply: unique users who performed at least one targeted action per day or per month. What exactly is considered “activity” is determined by each team itself: for the messenger it is opening an application, for SaaS it is a login, for a game it is a completed session.

The key derived indicator is the stickiness coefficient: DAU/MAU × 100%. For WhatsApp it is about 70%, for a typical mobile application - 20-25%, for most SaaS products - 15-40%. If stickiness is below 10%, the product does not create a habit, people downloaded it and forgot.

In marketing, DAU/MAU is important for assessing ROI on acquisition. If MAU is growing, but DAU is standing still, it means that a cold audience is being attracted that does not return. I saw this situation in one EdTech project: MAU grew by 15% monthly, but stickiness fell from 32% to 11% in six months. As a result, LTV fell by half, despite the beautiful reporting on “audience growth.”

For a performance marketer, DAU/MAU is a benchmark that you need to know before launching a campaign. It is useless to pour traffic into a product with a stickiness of 8%: the money will go away, and retention will not help.